Scarlet Knights beat Lwt. Crew

The Penn men's lightweight crew team opened its season with a loss to Rutgers this past Saturday. After a long day on the Raritan River in New Jersey, the Quakers returned home late Saturday night fully aware of their improvements since the fall and also cognizant of their weaknesses. "We've gained speed since the fall," sophomore varsity rower Joel Frankel said. "We just need to keep practicing harder." Penn coach Bruce Konopka was happy with his team's performance and recognized that Rutgers is a hard race with which to open the season. "Rutgers is a good team," Konopka said. "They just have a lower stroke rating than us." Penn commodore Michael Smolenski was also happy with the team's performance and recognized that Rutgers is a quicker team. "We did a good job," the senior said. "But Rutgers was just better." Penn's first varsity boat got off to a quick start and was able to keep up with the Scarlet Knights during the beginning of the course. But Penn was unable to keep up its speed and fell behind. "Our guys were rowing at a higher stroke rate than Rutgers," Konopka said. "But eventually the guys ran out of gas and slowed down." The Red and Blue were enthusiastic about their speed, but most agreed that they started out too fast. "We rowed too high [of a stroke rate] for this early in the season," Frankel said. "We're just not ready to row that high yet." Despite their loss, the Quakers remain optimistic about their improvements and about their overall performance. "We raced real hard," Smolenski said. "We just need to get the fundamentals back together and get stronger." The second varsity boat was not as successful and had trouble steering. Konopka blames this on the fact that the team could not practice on the Raritan River prior to the race. "The water tide was too low to practice before the race," Konopka said. "This contributed to the loss." Overall, team members seem to be using Saturday's race as a source of energy for the rest of the season. "Our main goal is the national races at the end of the season," sophomore junior varsity rower Paul Tomlin said. "This race was a building block toward the rest of our season." In response to this weekend's performance, Konopka hopes the team will refine its race tactics. "Once we work on our speed and strokes per minute, we'll be back on track," Konopka said. "We're ready to win." Next weekend, Penn will have an opportunity to win at Cornell against the Big Red and Harvard. At that race, the Quakers will have a chance to see if the speed they displayed against Rutgers will bring them a victorious season.